


In the Bitterness

by Glitter_Lisp



Series: Somewhere Along [2]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-26 02:41:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6220438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glitter_Lisp/pseuds/Glitter_Lisp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Parker's life doesn't follow anything like a normal schedule, but there are some things that are always the same: Alec is always home before her, Nate and Sophie are always home after her, and Eliot hasn't been home in years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Bitterness

If anyone were to ask, Parker would tell them she’s homeschooled. She is, sort of, and Nate and Sophie do make sure that she knows enough to pass the tests at the end of the year, but they all know that she’s not going to end up doing anything that requires a formal education. She’s not that kind of person. (She refuses to think what kind of person she is, because if she ever says “broken” out loud she doesn’t think she’d ever be okay again, and she only just finally started to be okay in the first place.)

But anyways, no one ever asks. When she goes places during the day when other kids would be at school, she stays out of the way so most people don’t notice her, and she never goes to the same spot more than three times a month so no one recognizes her unless she wants them to. The only people who might remember her enough to wonder why she’s not in school mostly know from the beginning that she’s not.

Still, she tries to mostly follow a normal schedule that any other fourteen-year-old would. She tries to be done with whatever she’s doing by three or four, and she can be home from anywhere in the city within a half an hour. She’s got a bus pass. Sometimes to seem normal she even goes in through the front door.

Today’s not one of those days, because when she gets upstairs she can’t hear any music through the door. Alec always starts playing some music when he gets home, because he likes to listen to it to do his homework. Parker keeps walking past the door, slides out the window and the end of the hall, and spider crawls across the bricks to the kitchen. It’s still too quiet, even from there, even when she’s perfectly silent as she pushes up the window and crawls in.

Something in her stomach feels cold and hurt and she wants to cry, because Alec is supposed to be here, but he must not be because he’s never been this quiet in five years. She needs to call Nate, and Sophie, and Maggie, and the police, and the fire department, someone’s gotta find him-

And then she hears it.

The guitar.

* * *

There are things in their home that aren’t talked about. No one ever says Archie Leech’s name. There’s a boy named Sam who’s talked about less than never. They don’t ask Sophie about her dead name. They don’t ask Alec to play his violin in front of other people. No one can call Parker anything but Parker.

And no one talks about the guitar that’s underneath Alec’s bed, or the set of fancy culinary knives in Parker’s closet. Normally she wouldn’t be able to resist using them, but they have a specific purpose and that’s not it. They’re for making, not for breaking, that’s what Eliot told her.

Oh, yeah. Eliot is another thing they don’t talk about.

* * *

She slinks through the house towards Alec’s room, whisper quiet and pulled forward by the music. Then he starts singing, and she starts running.

The door’s open just a hair. Alec always leaves it wide open, and Eliot always locked his. This must be their compromise. Whatever the reason, it means that she can slip in unnoticed, because Eliot will be looking at the guitar and Alec will be looking at him.

The door bangs into the wall when she sprints into the room, and Eliot curses and drops his guitar on the floor when she flings herself at him and starts punching every inch of him she can reach.

“Wh- hey! Parker!” When he grabs her wrists she tries to kick him, and when he pins her to the side of the bed she just wriggles and thrashes wildly. “Parker, stop!”

“Parker!” Alec is crying, trying to grab her arm, and she snarls at him. She’ll feel bad about that later, probably.

“You promised!” she shrieks. “You’re a liar, you _promised_!”

“I know,” Eliot whispers. “I know, kid, I’m sorry, I’m fucking sorry, I never should have come back-”

“You never should have _left_!” she bellows. “You said you wouldn’t and you did and I just finally got _used_  to it, _fuck you!”_

Alec should be grabbing the swear jar but today is a day of exceptions. Like normally he would be mad about her saying fuck, except today is different. Normally today would be day number 1362 since Eliot, except now the clock is going to set back to zero, and for how long this time? How long until he leaves again?

“Hey, come on, it’s okay,” he soothes, and she’s shaking so hard she might fall apart if he wasn’t holding onto her. “Don’t cry, sweetheart, please, it’s okay.”

“You… p-promised!” she says, and her voice cracks along the middle and the words start pouring out. “You said you were gonna be my brother and then you were gone, the _next day,_ Eliot! The next fucking day!”

“I didn’t want to go,” he says, voice rougher and deeper than it was one thousand, three hundred and sixty-two days ago. “Swear to God, Parker, all I wanted was to stay here, but I didn’t have a choice.”

“You wouldn’t let us visit,” she accuses. “We could have come see you but you just… you didn’t…” And she’s crying again, too hard to speak. Eliot’s not holding her down anymore as much as he’s just holding her. She shoves her knuckles against his arm weakly, trying to push him off because it’s better if he goes. Alec curls up against her other side.

“I’m sorry,” Eliot breathes, pulling them both closer to him. “I thought it would be better for you, I didn’t… I wasn’t thinking, I”m just selfish, I’m sorry.”

“Be selfish the other way,” she demands. “Do it for me or I’ll steal all your teeth and your fingers.”

He huffs out something that might be a laugh, if it didn’t sound so much like a sob. “You still kept your knives, huh?”

“Your knives,” she corrects him, leaning in close so the three of them feel like one big person who’s smart and strong and fast. “When you’re here, they’re your knives. And you’re here now.”

Alec grins at her and she grabs his hand and Eliot drops his chin on top of her head. “Damn straight.”


End file.
